THE NOGAYS

The self-designationnogai (noghai) derives from the name of one man.
Nogay, grandson to Genghis Khan, was an outstanding chieftain and, although
he did not possess the khan's title, the real leader of the Golden Horde.
He was the ruler of the Nogay Horde west of the Danube, the domain of his
nomadic subjects. Nogay was killed either in the year 1294 or, according
to other sources, 1300, but his name remained, denoting the vagrant people
in the steppes by the sea of Azov. In the earlier Russian texts the Nogays
were referred to as the North Caucasian Tatars.

Habitat. The Nogays live as scattered linguistic enclaves forming no single
ethnic or administrative unit. There existed a sizable group in the Nogay
Steppes but in 1957 they were divided against their will between three
administrative units: the Dagestan Autonomous SSR, the Chechenian-Ingush
Autonomous SSR and the Stavropol District. Administrative policy of this
nature has further accelerated the tendency towards cultural decline and
loss of national identity among the Nogays. At present the largest number
of Nogays live in North Caucasia, having moved there from the Moldova/Roumania
border and the Astrakhan area. In North Caucasia they have settled down
in a) the Karachayevo-Cherkess Autonomous region, where according to rough
estimates, around 20,000 Nogays are living, b) the Karamurzin and Kangly
villages of the Kochubeyevsk and Mineralnye Vody Districts and in the Neftekumsk
and Achikulak Districts of the Stavropol Area, c) the northern Dagestan:
Nogay and Kizlyar Districts of the Dagestan Autonomous SSR and the Shelovsk
District of the Chechenian-Ingush Autonomous SSR. Another minor group of
the Nogays lives in Tatarskaya Slobodka near the town of Novocherkassk.
The Astrakhan and Crimean Nogays, as well as a number of the Dagestan Nogays
(the Khasav-Yurt and the Baba-Yurt) are at present undergoing linguistic
assimilation with the local population.

Population, according to census data, was 34,000 in 1926; 41,200 in 1959
(incl. 17,600 in the Stavropol Area and 14,900 in the Dagestan Autonomous
SSR); 52,000 in 1970, among whom 46,000 spoke their native language, and
59,546 in 1979.

According to various estimates, the Nogay population amounted from 60,000
to 80,000 in 1990. The presence and standing of the Nogays on their historical
territories has decreased.

Language. The Nogay language belongs to the Kipchak or Northwestern Group
of the Turkic languages, comprising with Kara-Kalpak and Kazakh the Kipchak-Nogay
subgroup. Nogay is one of the less-studied Turkic languages. According
to N. Baskakov, the Nogay language divides into three dialects: a) the
Kara-Nogay (Turkic kara -- 'black') dialect, spoken in the Nogay District
in Dagestan, on the lower reaches of the River Kuma and in the area between
the Lower Kuma and Lower Terek in North Dagestan, b) the Nogay Proper spoken
in the Achikulak and Neftekumsk Districts of the Stavropol Area, (the speakers
of these two dialects together make up the so-called Steppe Nogay Group),
c) the Aknogay dialect (Turkic ak -- 'white': Turkic peoples have commonly
divided their tribes into black and white, 'black' meaning 'northern' and
'white' 'western') by the River Kuban and its tributaries in Karachayevo-Cherkess
and in the Kangly village of the Mineralnye Vody District (13,200 speakers).
The Kara-Nogay and Nogay Proper dialects are comparatively close linguistically
while the Aknogay dialect stands somewhat apart. Dialectal differences
are the result of a long geographical separation. Contact with neighbouring
ethnic groups has also had an influence on the development of dialects.
The Kara-Nogay have always interacted with Russians and Armenians, and
the Kuban Nogay, that is, the Aknogay, with Russians, Cherkess, Abazians
and Karachay. Countless contacts have left their deep impression on the
language and culture of the Kuban Nogay.

In the Astrakhan Region, on the lower reaches of the Volga there live some
30,000 people of Nogay origin, falling into four ethnic groups: the Yurt
(the Privolzhsk District), the Kundrovets (the village of Tuluganovka),
the Karagash (Krasnoyarsk and neighbouring districts) and the Utar-Alabugaty
(the areas adjoining the Kalmyk Autonomous SSR). The ancestors of the Yurts,
Kundrovets and Utar-Alabugaty who came originally from the Great Nogay
Horde, moved to the environs of Astrakhan in the early 17th century to
avoid the Kalmyks. The Karagash who settled here in the late 18th century
had come from the Small Nogay Horde by the Kuban. Yurt connections with
their North-Caucasian kinsfolk were severed in the middle of the 17th century,
and with the Karagash a century later. The cultural and linguistic impact
of the Mid-Volga (Kazan and Mishar) Tatars has been strong upon the Yurts,
somewhat weaker upon the Karagash. In the years 1931--1943 the Narimanovsk
District comprised the Tatar-Nogay National Territory. In the 1939 census
most of the Nogays were registered as Tatars. Since the early 1970s the
desire for ethnic self-preservation has strengthened, especially among
the Karagas. One of the reasons for this has been the deterioration of
the environment. In the 1989 census some thousands of the Lower-Volga Nogays
(mainly the Karagash) registered as Nogays.

No attention has been paid to modernizing the Nogay villages. Roads, where
they exist, are primitive; communications even more so. It is not unusual
that because of impassable roads in spring and autumn village children
miss school for weeks at a time. In many villages water-supplies are deficient.
The result is that the Nogay have begun to leave their historical areas
of residence for Stavropol, the Moscow region, in the north, for Astrakhan
and Khabarovsk.

At present (1990) two newspapers -- The Path of Lenin and The Steppe Lighthouse
-- are issued in the Nogay language. Due to poor road conditions and ill-managed
communications their distribution is not wide.

Until 1957, the Nogay language was taught everywhere in the first five
years at school. Now, however, in Stavropol, for example, the teaching
of Nogay has been either ceased altogether or continues only on an optional
basis at primary school level. Optional lessons are not attended or are
attended without notable enthusiasm. In the Nogay District in Dagestan
the teaching of Nogay has continued but suffers from a lack of teachers:
the Nogay Pedagogical School in the town of Kizlyar closed down long ago.
There is evidence that the training of Nogay teachers has resumed. Due
to the low prestige of their native language among Nogay youths there are
difficulties in forming full study groups at the Karachayevo-Cherkessk
Pedagogical Institute.

Kindergartens are conducted in Russian even in those regions where the
Nogays form a substantial majority of the population (except in the Nogay
District in Dagestan). Pidginization is notable among the young. By now,
the Nogays have acknowledged the impending danger of extinction for their
language and they have begun to demand the obligatory teaching of their
native language at school. There has been discussion of native-language-based
teaching at experimental primary schools but there is considerable unwillingness
at an official level to support or subsidize Nogay culture.

The influence of Russian is extensive and is evident at all levels of the
language, including phonetics. Russian-Nogay relations, based on trade,
have a centuries-long history. Relations deteriorated during the Civil
War when the Nogay Steppe filled with Russian refugees from the Terek region
who decided to settle, but at length the hostility died. Knowledge of Russian
among the Nogay spread and a number of villages with a mixed population
appeared.

In recent times several waves of migration have swept Nogay territories.
The first of these, in the 1960s, came from other regions of Caucasia.
Massive migration also occurred in the 1970s and 1980s. The relations of
the Nogays with the recent settlers in the Nogay Steppe are strained and
extremely inflammable. The reasons for conflict are primarily economic.
An especially destabilizing influence has been the immigration of the Dargwas
from Dagestan. The Dargwas have in places superseded the Nogays in livestock
breeding. The rate of unemployment is high among the Nogays. A similar
replacement of the Nogay people, mainly by Russians and Dargwa, is under
way in administrative offices. In search of better living conditions Nogay
families have begun to leave their historical areas of residence. The recent
Russian settlers consider the Nogay people uncivilized and scorn their
language. However, relations between the Nogays and the Dargwas are considered
the most inflammable. The possibility of an armed exchange is not inconceivable.
The situation is being exacerbated by the arrival of Meshed Turks on the
Nogay Steppe.

As mentioned, the Nogays live dispersed in a number of administrative units.
They have no centre for the promotion and coordination of cultural activities.
The Nogays have no national theatre or song and dance ensemble, whereas
many other ethnic minorities of the area possess both. Recently, a few
fledgling groups have appeared but there are attempts to discredit them
as extremists. There is a movement towards autonomous government calling
for a restitution of autonomy within the bounds of 1957. The Nogays appealed
to the Soviet central authorities with a petition. The push towards autonomy
will probably meet with strong opposition from Dagestan and other neighbouring
republics lest they should lose their vast pastures on the Nogay Steppe.
It has been proposed that even establishing Nogay national village soviets
and districts (in the Karachayevo-Cherkessk Autonomous SSR, for example)
might considerably ease the strain in relations between these nations.

Origin and history. The origins of the people are related to the famous
Nogay Horde in the 13th and 14th centuries, the Golden Horde, and the Kipchak
tribal confederacies. In the first half of the 17th century a number of
Nogay tribes were nomadic on the steppes between the Danube and the Caspian.
The invasion of the warlike Kalmyks forced several of the Nogay tribes
to leave their home steppes and withdraw to the foothills of the North
Caucasus. By the River Kuban they met with the Cherkess. In the Moscow
chronicles from the 16th and 17th centuries there are several mentions
of the Nogay, including the two Nogay Hordes, the Great and the Small.
The former roamed beyond the River Volga, the latter somewhat to the west.
Both had numerous military encounters with the Russians. In the 17th century
some of the Nogay chiefs entered into an alliance with Moscow and fought
at times together with the Russians against the Kabardians, the Kalmyks
and peoples of Dagestan. They also took part in the expeditions of Peter
I. Since the early 19th century the majority of the Nogays have settled
in North Caucasia.

The Nogays still exhibit the traces of division into three tribal groups.

Ethnic culture. Before their migration to North Caucasia the countless
Nogay tribes led a nomadic life. The different tribes were brought together
by shared political and economic interests. In North Caucasia the tribes
began to lose their former structure and mix with one another. The Kara-Nogays
continued as nomads until the establishment of Soviet power. The Kuban
Nogays became settled much earlier, in the late 18th century, along the
Greater and Smaller Zelenchuk Rivers and the Lower Uruk and Laba. The nomadic
way of life has left a conspicuous mark on Nogay economies and culture.
The methods of livestock husbandry are similar to that of the Kazakh and
other Central Asian peoples. Throughout the centuries horsebreeding has
been of great importance -- horses were used for transport in the vast steppes,
battles were fought by cavalry, horse-milk was drunk and horsemeat was
served as food. Horses were sold annually to Moscow. After settling, agriculture
rose to prime importance among the Kuban Nogays.

On Nogay farms, both collective and private, livestock breeding is the
chief occupation, agriculture being only auxiliary, camel-breeding once
flourished but it was completely eradicated in the 1960s and 1970s. Since
the end of World War II, canals have been built to irrigate the land, however,
in recent years the total area of pastureland possessed by the Nogays has
diminished. This is due to the fact that the neighbouring Georgians, Avars,
Dargwas and Lakks drive their cattle across Nogay pastures. Also, in the
Stavropol Area large plots of arable land have been ented to Koreans.

Writing. Formerly the Nogay written language was based on the Arabic alphabet.
In 1928 the Latin alphabet was introduced. The first spelling book based
on Latin alphabet was published in 1929, in Moscow, followed by schoolbooks,
several dictionaries of terminology and an ortographic manual. The ortographic
system, based on the Latin alphabet, was compiled by the Nogay academic,
A. Dzhanibekov (Canibek) proceeding from principles adopted for all Turkic
languages. It was founded on a phonetic principle. The creation of a new
ortography reinforced Nogay linguistic studies. The difficulty was in finding
a suitable dialectal basis for the written language. Finally, the Kara-Nogay
dialect spoken in Dagestan was adopted as the foundation, on the grounds
that this was the language of the "Nogay working masses". The fact that
the founders of the alphabet and orthography were living in Dagestan was
also a matter of no little importance. After a while it turned out that
lexical differences from the Kuban Nogay dialect were abundant. The Dagestan
dialect contains a lot of arabicisms and tatarisms. Therefore the dialectal
basis was revised and by 1936 a new project for a literary language was
envisaged but the time for putting it into practice ran out -- under the
inspiring guidance of the North Caucasian Regional Committee for Introducing
the New Alphabet a transition to the Russian alphabet began.

In 1938 this transition was enforced, which, according to N. Gadzhieva,
gave an impetus to education and set a native written press on its legs.
The ortography based on the Latin alphabet had allegedly been an impediment
to learning Russian. Spelling international (read: Russian) words according
to the Turkic phonetics was declared improper practice. Adopting Russian
loan-words without any assimilation, practically in an unchanged form,
is considered a great advantage to the Nogay language. Thus the introduction
of the Russian alphabet constituted a violation of the language, a premediated
programme to gradually undermine its very structure and destroy it.

In the Nogay District in Dagestan, the Nogay language and literature are
on the school curriculum from the 1st to the 10th year, they are also taught
at the Karachayevo-Cherkess Pedagogical School and the national branch
of the Pedagogical Institute. Nogay is not an official language, nevertheless,
it is the main medium for giving "political and ideological education to
the Nogays", as stated in the Grammar of the Nogay Language published in
1973. Nogay is not taught in other districts.

Nogay linguistic research is conducted by the Institute for Historical,
Linguistic and Literary Studies in Cherkessk. One of the fruits of this
establishment is a Russian-Nogay dictionary, edited by N. Baskakov and
published in 1956.

By 1973, two small newspapers were being published -- one in Karachayevo-Cherkessk
and another in the Nogay District of the Dagestan Autonomous SSR. However,
because of poor communications, as well as sheer official indifference,
these papers did not reach Nogay villages. Cultural activity in the village
has ceased to exist. There is no Nogay theatre.

There are some signs of a growing national consciousness among the Nogays
of the Lower Volga. Since the year 1989/90 some schools of the region,
including one city school in Astrakhan, have taught optional courses in
native literature. A Nogay Culture Club has been founded in the Astrakhan
Region. The all-Union Nogay society Birlik has made its debut.